Homing Overlay Experiment

With concerns about BMD programs using interceptors with nuclear warheads, consideration turned to hit-to-kill methods, where an interceptor missile would destroy an incoming ballistic missile by colliding with it. In 1979, to examine the feasibility of the so-called Kinetic Kill Vehicle (KKV), the BMDATC initiated major missile research activity called the Homing Overlay Experiment (HOE) – Homing meant that the missile had its own seeker, and Overlay was the term for exo-atmospheric interceptions). Edward L. Wilkinson was the Program Manager.

The KKV, integrated by Lockheed, had an infrared seeker, guidance electronics, and a propulsion system. It extended a 13-ft (4-m) diameter structure similar to an umbrella skeleton to enhance its physical cross section; this device was intended to destroy the ICBM reentry vehicle on collision. The target was a MINUTEMAN-boosted re-entry vehicle launched from Vandenberg AFB 4,500 miles (7,200 km) away on a trajectory so that it would impact north of Kwajalein Atoll in the central Pacific. The ARPA Lincoln C-Band Observables Radar (ALCOR) on Roi-Namur acquired and tracked the target before the HOE was launched, about 20 minutes into the target flight. The kill vehicle was launched from Meck Island by a two-stage MINUTEMAN booster.

After three test failures, the HOE was successful on 10 June 1984, intercepting and destroying the target RV with a closing speed of about 13,600 mi/hr (6.1 km/s) at an altitude of more than 100 mi (160 km). This successful experiment was highly important in BMD evolution; it showed that it would be possible to develop a BMD system against ICBMs using the hit-to-kill concept, leading to the eventual elimination of nuclear warheads on interceptors.

In addition to the BMDATC and Lockheed Missiles and Space Company, team members sharing the success included Teledyne Brown Engineering, Nichols Research Corporation, Honeywell International, Rocketdyne, Space Vector Corporation, McDonnell Douglass, Aeromet Incorporated, MIT Lincoln Laboratory, and the Sandia National Laboratory.